CLEAN – Laundry
The next room for our challenge is to clean the laundry. With 5 members in our house, I am washing 6 out of 7 days. To make it easer on myself I need to keep the laundry tidy and clutter free.
Cleaning task
Today’s cleaning task is to do the following in your laundry:
[wlchecklist name=’CleanDay3′]
Remember just do the tasks above, we will be coming back to the laundry during the challenge to organise and clean other areas.
Here are a few posts I have shared on my blog about organising the laundry:
- Finding time to fold clean laundry
- Laundry room organising tips
- Wash the clothes line
- Declutter under the laundry sink
- Airing my dirty laundry – guest post
- Ironing routine
- How to keep up with the washing when raining
- How I organise all our pet supplies in the laundry
- A day in the life of The Organised Housewife’s day off
- How many school uniforms should I buy?
- My new sorting clean laundry routine
DECLUTTER – Laundry Pile
That is right, declutter your laundry pile by organising the dirty laundry. This is one of my most used organising solutions in our home and I really hope you have the space to be able to implement it in your laundry as it saves me so much time. In fact when I needed a new dryer and I had to purchase one that I could mount on the wall as I didn’t want to lose my dirty laundry system.
I pre-sort my washing into piles:
- Darks
- Colours
- Whites
- Other – Tea towels, wash clothes, tablecloths, mop heads etc
This is my system, it fits in perfectly between the linen cupboard and the washing machine.
How it works
My kids don’t have a dirty clothes basket in their bathroom, there is just no room to store one. After their shower they put their clothes directly into the laundry baskets, sorting into darks, whites and colours as they go. They have done this from a very young age and it is such a great help to me. I have a clothes basket in my bathroom which I empty and sort into these baskets every one to two days.
I find this system eliminates time out of the mundane washing process. Laundry isn’t too much of a chore with this fuss free system. When ready to do the washing all the clothes are there (so no running around to bathrooms or bedrooms picking up clothes), I load the washing machine and continue on with whatever I was doing.
[wlchecklist name=’DeclutterDay3′]
ORGANISE – Laundry Routine
The washing is very much like ground-hog day, however it needs to be done otherwise we won’t have clean clothes to wear. I have a really bad memory, I used to use ‘baby brain’ as an excuse, but my youngest is now 9, so that doesn’t hold up. Creating a laundry routine ensures that I remember to wash everything needed and that the kids go to school at the end of the week with clean uniforms and we eat on a clean tablecloth.
My washing schedule:
Monday – colours
Tuesday – bedsheets
Wednesday – darks & gym gear
Thursday – kitchen linens
Friday – bath towels & gym gear
Saturday – whites & darks
Sunday – day off
I have created some prints for my laundry which includes my schedule above, it helps remind me which load needs to be run each day. This schedule also allows me to have a day off washing each Sunday! These digital prints are available in my shop and can be personalised for your own routine. I have placed the prints in frames and used 3M strips to attach to the wall, brightens up a rather ordinary room.
Laundry schedules are available in my shop. Use coupon code 20dayslaundry to get 20% off at checkout (excludes personalised chart). Click here to download
[wlchecklist name=’OrganiseDay3′]
NEW HABIT – Put on a load of washing.
I put on a load of washing before I start our evening routine, then hang it out to dry that evening as I live on the glorious Gold Coast the sun is up before I am and has it dried by mid morning. Add ‘put on a load of washing’ to your evening or morning routine to help you stay on top of it. Here are some suggestions:
- Put washing on in the evening and hang on the line before breakfast
- Put washing on before breakfast hang before leaving for work/school run
[wlchecklist name=’NewHabitDay3′]
5 MINUTES ONLY – Polish or dust 2 pieces of furniture
[wlchecklist name=’5minutesonlyDay3′]
DOWNLOAD
Print the daily sheet and checklists to keep for reference while you are completing the above tasks.
- DAY 3 DAILY TASK SHEET – file behind ‘Daily Task’ divider – click to download.
- LAUNDRY CLEANING CHECKLIST – file behind ‘Checklist’ divider – click to download.
- BLANK LAUNDRY CLEANING CHECKLIST – use this to create your own checklist, file behind ‘Checklist’ divider – click to download.
199 comments
I started on time but have just completed day 3 as I have sooo much stuff !!, it’s embarrassing. It’s amazing how much you can accumulate and not notice until you start pulling it all out !
Thanks for the pep note I received yesterday. I was feeling flat from being so behind but it reminded me why I signed up in the first place.
I am already feeling relief with the progress so far.
Thanks Kat.
Wonderful Janene! Keep going with your beautiful organised home.:)
this was quite easy for me to finish as I don’t have a laundry room. my iron and ironing board along with washing baskets pegs and spare hangers go into a spare cupboard in my sons room. washing machine sits in the kitchen and my laundry detergents have a shelf in the cupboard under the sink which was cleaned and organised on the day one challenge. all cleaned and done. given washing machine and much needed clean. my dryer lives in my room/sitting room. I live in a two bed flat in England so each of my kids have their own bedroom and I have a bed sit in the lounge. so I have to try and double up functions for each area. x
you get some time off in the challenge Gillian!!
Got this task done yesterday with the help of hubby. I had to take a shower after I did it as I got so dirty!! Sounds terrible but we built our house two years ago and haven’t finished the laundry floor. It’s just concrete so not great for a continual upkeep. It had a LOT of dust and dirt from the garage come in. A GREAT job done! Can’t wait to see the results of next week!
Well done Sally! You are doing great.:) And good on hubby for helping you out!
Still working on my room.
Didn’t do much today as my Fibromyalgia is killing me cause I have been pushing so hard!
Just sorted my magazines and tore out what I wanted to keep, filed that and threw the rest in the recycle bin
Great work Julie! You are doing a wonderful job.:)
I was busy for a couple of days with others things but now I’m getting back into it. I’m doing this today! I hope I manage it! 🙂
Hope were able to make a good start Candice and noticing a good difference 🙂
I love love love your clothes sorting idea, I’m going to just use standing baskets or tubs but the idea of the kids sorting their clothes straight into separate piles in the laundry will be fantastic!!
Fantastic Carla! So glad to hear.:)
Hi Kat & Kate,
First I want to thank you both, my kitchen and main bedroom look, smell and feel fab! I don’t have a laundry room as such, our dirty clothing goes into the relevant basket for the colour which is stored in a cupboard outside our main bathroom. I set a load of washing every evening to start at 5am so that I can hang out / tumble dry depending on the weather before I leave for work. The area where my tumble dryer, ironing board and mount ironmore sit are in my conservatory which also doubles up as a playroom. I am trying to iron and put away a basket a day…. This is the worst part of my house and one that we intend to demolish and rebuild once funds allow it! But thanks to you guys I’m feeling empowered – so I’m off there now (I may not be back for a while lol)
Sarah x
LOL Sarah, don’t drown in Mt Washmore. Love that your goal is to get through a basket a day though, that will be a big help to get you to the bottom. So pleased your home is starting to smell good!!
Love the printables for the laundry week wash. I have mostly organised my laundry, but need to sort out my pet stuff. Thanks for all the hints.
Susanne
your welcome Susanne 🙂
It’s one of those jobs that never gets done – and it can get quite grotty behind there! Glad I did it! 🙂 Washing is ON …will hang it out in the morning..then no washing till Monday 🙂 Exciting!
wow, envious no washing till Monday!
Still working on the laundry. Could not believe how much lint was behind and on top of the tumble dryer. Ended up removing it from the wall space and giving it a good vacuum and clean.
it’s surprising it’s it Michele!